The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-07-06
BRINGING UP CHILDREN.
The Advisability of Teaching Them to Be
Orderly and MannerIY Early in Life.

The Advisability of Teaching Them to Be
Orderly and Mannerly Early in Life.
Good conduct at meals is, with chill
dren, fair criterion of good manners;
and meals may be made use of, as
favorable opportunities for intoxicating
prOpriety of behavior. Children should
be taught to sit down, and rise up from
the table, at the same time, to wait
whilst others are served, without be-
traying eagerness or impatence, to avoid
noise and conversation, and, if they are
no longer confined to the nursery, to
be able to see delicacies without expect
ing or asking to partake of them. To
know when to be silent is more impor-
tant to good manners, than is generally
supposed. Speaking, when it interrupts
reading or conversation, and the habit
of contradicting others, should be
checked, as also, that ill-timed garruli-
ty, SO unpleasing in some children, and
which, generally, springs from an I'M
desirable self-cOnfidence and forward
ness of character
Nor is the person to be neglected in
early life; for it viii Spare children
many awkward feelings as they grow
up if they are taught to walk and to
carry themselves well, to enter and
leaYe room, and to address others
with ease and propriety. With many
the requirement of this external polish
will prove q very slow work, and sub
ject of considerable difficulty; but, if
we see an amiable and obedient dis
position, there is every reason to hope
that roughness of manner will be
smoOthed down by time and the ex-
ample of others. Parents ought not,
therefore, to allow themselves, from
their own irritability and impatience,
to render manner, as is the case in so
many families, the cause of daily vexa-
ton, and of continual, though fruitless
complaints. We must receive with
patience and good nature, numberless
little failures in those whose happiness
it is to think little of the effect they pro-
duce upon others; nor is it by reproofs
and admonitions showered down upon
the child at the noment in which we
wish him to display his good manners,
that we shall effect our purpose; but by
accustoming him to exercise habitual
kindness and civility toward his COM
paniOns and those with whom he lives.
With all our care, however, we are not
to expect that the manners of children
will be superior to those of the persons
with whom they chiefly associate; for,
in nothing is it more true. that 1--WE are
all a sort of cameleons, and still take
a tincture of things around u.s." On
this account, as on any other, it is of
Importance that children should wit
ness no vulgar habits in the nursery,
and that the conversation between the
nurses themselves should be guarded
and correct.
But here it must be remarked that
in our earnestness to render our chill
dren pleasing, and to improve their
manners, care will be required that we
do not rob them of their chief charm,
the simplicity of childhood; for how
greatly are to be preferred, even an
uncouthness of behavior, and awkward
shyness, to any thing of premature for
wardness, formality or affectation.
''Affectation is but lighting up can
die to our defects, and though it has
the laudable aim of pleasing, always
misses it." We must also avoid work
ing upon vanity to secure good man.
nSrs, lest we nurture that love of adj
nniratIon which is apt, but too soon,
to take an overbearing possession of
the heart.
The general order of a nursery will
indeed be greatly promoted by early
rising, by regular hours for all employ
ments of the day, and by attention to
this maxim: "a place for every thing,
and every thing in its place. ''-Mother's
MaqQztne.